ZBrushCentral

Curve Tube snap to face instead of edge [Answered]

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi All,

I’ve been playing with the Curve Tube brush with Brush>>Modifiers>>Modifier set to 4 so that I get a 4 sided curve. It works as expected except that the curve lays down geometry that snaps along and edge parallel to the object surface. I want to have the face of my 4 sided geometry laying along the surface. I’ve tried everything I can think of but can’t get it to do what I want. I’ve searched and found nothing that addresses this specific thing. If it were a straight curve I can use transpose rotate, but because the curve bends transpose doesn’t work.

Anyone have any ideas how to do this?

Attachments

CurveTube_Adjust.jpg

#2

Try attaching a cube primitive (not a PM3d…attaching polymesh objects to curve/insert brushes causes instability and unexpected behavior) to the brush in the Brush>Modifiers>MeshInsert Preview instead. This lets me draw out square tubes in fairly predictable fashion.

[edit] I just tried this, and it still snaps to an edge, but if you play around with the angle youre laying down curves at, you can get the hang for getting satisfactory results. It seems to vary with the the angle youre using. You can also drag on the control points at the end of the curve with the curve brush to rotate the angle of the curve.

Unfortunately, ZB doesn’t recognize poly faces. But if you need completely deliberate results, you can always lay down the square curve as a strip of polygons over the surface with the topology tools, then extract a skin with the thickness slider.

#3

Thanks Spyndel;

Your suggestions are very helpful!

I’m also testing a ring primitive initialized to SDivide 4, LDivide 128, Twist 45, and SRadius of 5 streched out and adjusted with Transpose and the Move brush.

What I love about ZBrush are the many ways you can get what you want by thinking outside the box.

#4

Ok, so I figured out a way to do it and it’s quite simple at least for the model I’m working on.
In this post Aurick’s reply got me thinking http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?162509-Orientation-of-mesh-with-MeshInsertDot-brush&p=901729#post901729.

Here is what you do:

  1. Have your model snapped to the view you want to lay the stroke down on (Perspective turned off).
  2. In Tool>>Deformation rotate the model 45 degrees along the appropriate axis.
  3. Select the Curve Tube brush.
  4. In Brush>>Modifiers set Brush Modifier to 4 (this will give you a four sided tube).
  5. In the Stroke pallet turn on Snap in the Curve Mode section.
  6. Optional: make adjustments to Curve settings, Draw Size, Lazy Mouse etc. as desired.
  7. Draw out your curve.
  8. If everything is the way you want it just Ctrl Click and Drag to clear the mask and if you are using DynaMesh Ctrl Click and Drag again to remesh then go to Tool>>Deformation and rotate the model back 45 degrees.

If you need to adjust the curve you can’t clear the mask or it will shut off the editible curve, if you try to rotate the model back 45 degrees while masked only the curve will rotate; so here is what you can do:

  1. Turn off Snap in the Curve Mode and turn on Bend.
  2. In the Transform pallet activate rotation on a single axis (the same one you used to rotate the model)
  3. Rotate the model until it is parallel to the Screen
  4. Now adjust the edit curve as desired then go to step 8 to restore your model’s original position.